Opening Reception: Friday June 9th 5-9pm with DJ BongoheadNarratives & Perspectives from the Cuban Diaspora, A Bilingual Conversation: Saturday June 17th 2pmArtist & Curator Talk: Thursday June 22nd 6pmAll events will be held in the gallery, free and open to the public.

Curated by Waleska Santiago-Centeno, Cuba in Transition: Narrative & Perspective is a new exhibition of large-scale photo-mosaic murals, interviews and field recordings by Northampton-based artist Mark Guglielmo running from June 1-25, 2017 at A.P.E. Gallery, 126 Main St, Northampton, MA with an opening reception on Friday, June 9 from 5-9pm (Arts Night Out) featuring Special Guest DJ Bongohead.

Each mosaic measures 5 to 15 feet long and is handmade by taping together hundreds, sometimes thousands, of individual 4x6" photographs. Neither a computer nor Photoshop are used. Culled from dozens of audio interviews Guglielmo recorded and conducted in Spanish, diverse Cuban voices and perspectives are presented on portable mp3 players. It is the New York-born artist's second exhibition with the gallery and will travel to Cienfuegos and Trinidad, Cuba in February 2018.

Guglielmo visited Santiago de Cuba and Baracoa in July 2015 and Havana and Viñales in February 2016 before President Obama's landmark trip to Cuba in March 2016, the first by a sitting US President in 88 years. In February 2017, Guglielmo returned to the island, this time to Cienfuegos and Trinidad de Cuba, just two months after the death of Fidel Castro. An homage to Cuba at this historic moment, this project chronicles a dynamic and rich culture full of heart and soul, melded in the crucible of isolation: geographically, economically and politically.

A bilingual community conversation “Narratives & Perspectives from the Cuban Diaspora” on Saturday June 17 at 2pm will include six local Cubanos including Smith College Dance Professor Dr. Lester Tomé, Maricel Lucero, an ESL teacher at Holyoke's Paulo Freire Charter School whose father is a martyr of the Cuban revolution, Gloria Caballero, a faculty member at the MacDuffie School and researching her second Ph.D, Springfield resident Aristides Lima (80), who spent his first 50 years in Cuba, respected Cuban music expert Pablo "DJ Bongohead" Yglesias, and Miguel Periche, a Holguin native and founder of local Afro-Cuban dance group Iroko Nuevo. An “Artist & Curator Talk” will take place on Thursday June 22 at 6pm.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, curator Waleska Santiago-Centeno, a graduate of Harvard University's Museum Studies master's program, has mounted more than 20 critically acclaimed Caribbean art exhibits in New England, including "Nuestras Abuelas / Our Grandmothers" at UMASS, Wheaton College, Westfield Athenaeum and the Wistariahurst Museum and "Madamas: Women, Madonnas and Mothers" at Westfield Athenaeum and The University of Rhode Island.

Sponsored by NEPR, Daily Hampshire Gazette, El Sol Latino, WGBY, and WHMP. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Northampton Arts Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.